Field
The following relates to rendering from virtual 3-D scenes.
Related Art
Rendering images from 3-D scenes using ray tracing is based on evaluating a rendering equation, which includes a number of nested integrals that model different light behaviors, and is difficult to solve analytically. Therefore, non-analytical approaches to evaluating these equations can be used. One successful set of approaches to approximating the rendering equation is to use sampling techniques. The integral is evaluated at a number of discrete values, which can be determined randomly, to produce a probabilistic estimate of the integral from the samples.